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Abstract

This paper provides causal evidence on whether entrepreneurship education programs constitute an effective policy tool to promote entrepreneurial self-efficacy, attitudes and intentions. In a unique empirical setting we analyze the impact of a large scale European entrepreneurship program by means of a randomized field experiment in upper secondary education and find that the educational intervention is associated with a significant increase in entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and financing, ambiguity and marshalling skills. Our estimations further suggest that children who had been exposed to experiential entrepreneurship education prior to the program, or whose parents are of low educational attainment profit disproportionately more from the intervention than other students. We thus conclude that ex ante differences between children have important implications on the extent to which the benefits of educational initiatives can be reaped.